caesar88
Moderator
- Apr 26, 2016
- 35,853
- 70,871
- AFL Club
- Sydney
- Moderator
- #1,826
Don't often agree with you B52 (no offence), but I think you're spot on here. We used to be great at sharking the other rucks taps, we've dropped off noticeably in that department.
Because we aren’t a pro-active midfield anymore. Since 2017 our mids seem to have a defensive mentality of trying to shut down the opposition midfielders and then winning possession by scrapping. I’m hoping the next generation - Heeney, Hewett, Mills and Florent - will be more willing to come off their man and attack the ball from the tap. I think JPK and Parker, for all their combined brilliance, are both from that old school Swans way of prioritising more on getting the ball than actually clearing the ball out of the centre. Not much good getting hands on it if you can’t get any clean, effective clearances once you have it. This is also why I was a fan of Rowbottom pre-draft, as he has that attacking mentality where he cares less about over-possessing the ball in close and more about just moving it forward into space.